South African Pres. Jacob Zuma delivered his annual state of the nation address in February 2012. He pledged to extend the government’s infrastructure drive to stimulate growth and create more jobs, conceding that the existing levels of unemployment, poverty, and social inequality were unacceptable. The next day Zuma reiterated that nationalization of the mines, advocated by some in the African National Congress (ANC) and some trade unions, was not the policy of the ANC or the government.

After police opened fire at workers on strike at a platinum mine near Rustenberg, S.Af., on Aug. …

AP

On August 16 the world was shocked when live TV footage showed police shooting at mine workers who were on a wildcat strike at Lonmin’s platinum mine in Marikana, killing 34 and injuring many others. The strikers were demanding a monthly wage of 12,500 rand (1 rand = about $0.12). Ten people had been killed in the week before the massacre, including two policemen, and the police claimed that on August 16 they were under armed attack. Later reports revealed that some of the miners who were killed or injured on that day were not near the strike scene shown in the TV footage and that many had been shot in the back. The events led to wide discussion of the conditions of extreme inequality in the country. The workers at Lonmin eventually received wage increases of 11–22%, which sparked a massive strike wave at other platinum and gold mines and spread to additional sectors as other workers demanded similar or greater wage increases. In October a commission appointed by Zuma began its investigation into the events surrounding the massacre.

The ANC began the year with celebrations for its 100th anniversary and ended the year with retention of Zuma as the party’s president and the choice of activist-turned-businessman tycoon Cyril Ramaphosa as its deputy president at its congress in December. Disciplinary actions within the party also made news. At the end of February, after exhausting the appeals process, controversial ANC Youth League president Julius Malema was finally expelled from the ANC, but he remained defiant. He used the strike in Marikana as an opportunity to resume his call for nationalization of the mines, as well as to denounce Zuma. In September Malema appeared in court with others from Limpopo province, charged with having engaged in money laundering; the case was later postponed to 2013.

In March the Supreme Court of Appeal ordered a review by the Pretoria High Court of the 2009 decision by state prosecutors to drop corruption charges against then president-to-be Zuma. In May a Johannesburg art gallery exhibited a portrait of Zuma showing his genitals, which generated controversy. The ANC, claiming that the image violated Zuma’s dignity, organized a demonstration against it and threatened legal action, which caused the gallery to withdraw the portrait. Others objected to the attempts at censorship.

The board of inquiry appointed by Zuma to look into the fitness for office of suspended police chief Bheki Cele recommended in May that he be fired because he was “not truthful” and for “grossly misconducting himself” in his role in the illegitimate leasing of properties for police use in 2010. Cele called the board’s report a “crude stitch-up job.” In mid-June Cele was fired by Zuma, who at the same time made a few changes in his cabinet. Cele initially challenged the report in court, claiming that if he was vindicated, Zuma’s decision would be invalid. In March suspended crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli was reinstated; charges that he had engaged in corruption and fraud had been dropped in December 2011, and a charge of murder was dropped in February 2012. In May, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa shifted him to another division, which led him to appeal to the Labour Court. Later that month, however, Mdluli was suspended again; his suspension was lifted in early June but was put back in place days later. An inquest was held later, and the Boksburg Magistrate’s Court ruled that because of insufficient evidence, Mdluli and three others would not be charged with murder.

The highly controversial Protection of State Information Bill—popularly known as the Secrecy Bill—which aimed to regulate the dissemination of state information and had been passed in 2011 by the National Assembly, was considered by the other chamber of the parliament, the National Council of Provinces, in 2012. Despite some amendments offered by the government, the bill continued to arouse opposition from those who argued that it would curb freedom of expression and government accountability.

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) staged a national general strike on March 7 to protest the government’s refusal to abolish labour brokers (temporary employment services), which it regarded as modern-day enslavers, and extended tolling of roads in Gauteng (e-tolling), which it regarded as a form of privatization of services. Rallies and marches were held in 32 cities and towns. The government, however, refused to back down from its plans to regulate, rather than abolish, the practice of labour brokering. On April 28 the North Gauteng High Court granted a temporary interdict against e-tolling in Gauteng, but the Constitutional Court overturned this in August, and in December the North Gauteng High Court dismissed the case.

On May 15 the opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), marched on COSATU headquarters to protest the federation’s opposition to a subsidy to be paid to firms that employed youths to curb unemployment. COSATU argued that the subsidy would cut labour costs, undermining the position of older workers. It organized a counterdemonstration, which led to clashes with supporters of the DA.

South Africa was selected as one of the two primary sites for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope project. Australia was the other primary site; in addition, several other African countries and New Zealand would also host components for the project. When completed, the SKA would be the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope.

Economy

In 2011 GDP had expanded by 3.1%. Though growth in the fourth quarter of 2011 stood at 3.5%, in the first quarter of 2012 it fell to 2.7% before rising in the second quarter to 3.4% and then plunging to 1.2% in the third quarter.

The budget projected a 4.8% deficit for the 2011–12 fiscal year and 4.6% for 2012–13. Spending was expected to be 1.1 trillion rand, and income was expected to be 904.8 billion rand, with 9.5 billion rand of relief for personal taxpayers. Capital gains tax was increased to 13.3%, with a higher threshold. Some 16 million people were supported by social grants, amounting to 105 billion rand in 2012–13. Infrastructure projects with an estimated expense of 3.2 trillion rand were targeted for completion by 2020.

Inflation peaked at 6.3% in January and ended the year at an annual rate of 5.7%. The Reserve Bank dropped the repurchase rate by 0.5% in July, the first change since November 2010. In the fourth quarter of 2011, unemployment was 23.9%; in 2012 this rose to 25.2% in the first quarter and, after slipping to 24.9% in the second quarter, rose to 25.5% in the third. With only 365,000 jobs created in 2011, government spokesmen stated that a target set in 2010 of creating 5,000,000 jobs by 2020 was probably out of reach. The deficit on the current account of the balance of payments was 4.9% of GDP in the first quarter of 2012 and 6.4% in both the second and third quarters.

Foreign Policy

The minister of home affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, was elected chairperson of the African Union Commission. The Zuma administration tried to position itself as a champion of the new nonalignment, condemning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and rejecting the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In August the government ordered that products from West Bank settlements be identified as imports from occupied Palestinian territories.